ASCIANO LIMITED

Deutsche Bank strategist Tim Baker says earnings results have been broadly disappointing but that hasn’t hurt the market’s momentum, as dividend growth has been strong and companies have been rewarded for cost-cutting.

As Asciano’s talks with a Chinese conglomerate over the potential sale of a stake in its Patrick’s ports business drag on, it’s understood some American groups are eyeing parts of the company’s freight rail business.

Hastings Funds Management will have extra firepower for infrastructure investments after signing a strategic partnership agreement with the investment arm of China Merchants Group that will target deals up to $5 billion.

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13 November 2014 | PAGE 3 | Asciano on track but many sectors still slow

Asciano chief executive John Mullen has cautioned the economic environment remains weak ahead of Christmas as the ports and rail group reaffirmed existing profits guidance at its annual general meeting.

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29 October 2014 | PAGE 24 | Asciano further along the road to recovery

A broader market recovery provided some positive momentum for Asciano in recent weeks after its shares ­plummeted from a 12-month high of $6.61 at the end of August to trade as low as $5.61 in mid-October.

DP World Australia’s container ports in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane will be hit by strikes from the Maritime Union of Australia starting Wednesday as disputes continue over a new enterprise bargaining agreement.

Asciano’s talks with Chinese conglomerate China Merchants over the sale of a stake in its Patrick ports division are making progress, with the two groups hoping to strike a partnership deal by the end of the year.

Qube Holdings, the rapidly expanding logistics company, is the latest stock to surface on investors’ block trade radar after voluntary lock-ups over stakes held by two major shareholders lapsed this week.

The largest individual donor to the Queensland Liberal National Party in the past year, former coal baron turned marina operator Paul Darrouzet, gave $150,000 a week before approval to dredge near Great Barrier Reef.

Only a few months ago, Downer EDI was riding high. Its stock was trading at its strongest levels in more than a year – close to the heady days of 2010, before the Waratah trains debacle sent it crashing down.

Maersk Line, the world’s largest container shipping company, and freight operator Asciano have added their voices to criticism of the NSW port privatisations, saying the high prices fetched would damage the economy in the longer term.

Cashed-up private equity firms and a sluggish economy have put the spotlight back on value investing. UBS says Challenger, Lend Lease, Asciano, Origin Energy and QBE Insurance are the best value stocks to own.

Updated | Asciano has announced it will cut 500 jobs by the end of the month in an effort to reduce costs by $90 million in the next financial year and it also reaffirmed its profit guidance of low single-digit growth.

The chief executive of rail operator Asciano says he is willing to talk to coalminers about changing the terms of their rail contracts as they battle to cut costs and keep their mines from slipping further into the red.

Anglo American chief executive Mark Cutifani has urged rail operators to find ways to reduce the costs of coal haulage contracts, admitting the agreements are causing some Australian mines to run at a loss.

As thermal coal prices fell to a four-year low on Friday, the cost trap facing ­Australian coalminers was put in the spotlight with Brazilian behemoth Vale to mothball its operations in NSW’s Hunter Valley.

Believe it or not there is light at the end of the tunnel for McAleese. As nightmarish as its first five months as a listed entity has been, it looks an ideal time to buy into the stock. Since its debut in November 2013 it has been going from one disaster to the next.

Patrick Stevedores’ long running battle with the Maritime Union of Australia over the automation of Sydney’s Port Botany has been won after the Fair Work Commission rejected union calls for arbitration.

Asciano’s chief executive John Mullen has to date rebuffed investor calls to split up the company. But now Asciano is under renewed pressure to split up its ports and rail businesses after shareholders approached the board to agitate for a spin-off or sale of Patrick’s stevedores.

If Plan A was chasing yield and finding income, it might be time to switch to Plan B. Of course, there’s really only one plan when it comes to shares and that is: how am I going to make the most money?

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19 March 2014 | PAGE 2 | Top equities fund managers take a common approach

Australian equities fund managers that held consumer discretionary, information technology and energy stocks boasted the best performing investment strategies last month, as the average manager beat the index by 2.5 per cent for the year to February.

Asciano chief executive John Mullen says he can see no signs of a sustained economic recovery in Australia, with volumes in ports and rail businesses remaining soft, although demand for coal is at record levels.

Matthew Stevens | The coal industry has slipped down the totem pole of investment options to a point that the world’s biggest coking coal producer, BHP Billiton, says it can’t justify further investment in even the best parts of its Australian coal business

Patrick Stevedores faces an investigation over the potentially unlawful payment of strike pay at its Port of Fremantle operations. The Fair Work Ombudsman has confirmed it is looking at whether Patrick breached laws surrounding unlawful industrial action when it failed to dock pay of workers found to have engaged in a go slow.

The Maritime Union’s wildcat industrial action at the Fremantle docks is a ‘highly disturbing’ development that threatens the integrity of the workplace bargaining system, says the Fair Work Commission.

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21 January 2014 | PAGE 12 | Macquarie and Marubeni team up for Newcastle port

Macquarie Group’s infrastructure funds management unit, Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets, has teamed up with Japanese trading house Marubeni Corp to make a tilt at Mike Baird’s latest privatisation, the $700 million Port of Newcastle.

Morningstar raised its recommendation on Asciano to “hold” from “reduce” with a $5.36 price target and said growth was largely a function of the economic cycle, demand for coal and agricultural conditions.

Telecom New Zealand’s local subsidiary, AAPT, may be sold as early as this week with sources pointing to TPG Telecom, controlled by Australia’s only technology billionaire, David Teoh, as the likely acquirer.

Bouncing around ideas of where to invest $7 billion in funds under management can lead to big differences of opinion in the office. So Nick Langley, co-founder of RARE Infrastructure brought in a ping pong table so staff could destress by bouncing little white balls off each other instead.

NSW Treasury will formally advertise for expressions of interest in the Port of Newcastle on Monday, which should prompt local funds Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets, AMP Capital, Access Capital, QIC and Hastings Funds Management to show their hands.

It says much about the collapse of trust between the Millner family’s protective circle of companies and the alliance of agitation that is Mark Carnegie and Perpetual that the two sides could not even agree on negotiations to make sensible delay to their looming date with destiny.

What a guy John Mullen! Not only does the Englishman run the $6 billion ports and rail group Asciano, he also manages Silentworld Foundation, a small private museum in St Ives on Sydney’s upper north shore.

Asciano chief John Mullen has warned state governments on the consequences of privatising ports, saying new owners are driving up prices for consumers and exporters in a bid to extract greater returns.

Concerns the retail industry could be in for another disappinting Christmas have been underscored after Asciano warned that growth of container shipments through its ports would slow over the next few months.

Nobody doubted that the presence of Southern Cross Austereo chairman Max Moore-Wilton at a Financial Review and Macquarie lunch event on Wednesday would spice up proceedings. But even by Max the Axe’s standards, expectations were exceeded.

One of Australia’s leading company directors, Malcolm Broomhead, is urging a more simplified pay structure for executives, proposing to better align pay with performance and management with shareholder interests.

In light of the allegations of bribery and corruption riddled through Leighton Holdings’ international business, what can a company board do to stop crooked managers who are covering their tracks?Almost without exception, said David Crawford at the Financial Review JP Morgan Chanticleer lunch in Melbourne on Thursday, where there is graft and corruption in a company there are people on the proverbial shop floor who know what is going on.

Business leaders warned it would be “madness” for the Coalition to delay industrial relations reform for another three years, reflecting fears the government will sacrifice policy changes business needs to compete on the world stage in favour of endless reviews.

Ports and rail group Asciano has confirmed it will consider a bid to operate the Moorebank intermodal terminal in south-western Sydney but cautioned it may be hard to generate financial returns on freight rail networks without government intervention.

The Australian sharemarket closed lower on Wednesday in response to growing US Congressional support for a military strike on Syria – a geopolitical risk that has spooked global equity markets and investors.

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31 August 2013 | PAGE 2 | Bosses want to see a return to predictability

Chief executives of major Australian companies say the nation needs much greater political certainty and stable policy settings so that investment is encouraged and costs are stripped out of the economy rather than added.

The spiritual father of Lunch Watch, John Alexander, was at his usual table at Global HQ on Tuesday. And there was a dash of frost in the air – the Crown deputy chairman had Echo Entertainment chair John O’Neill seated just two tables away.

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21 August 2013 | PAGE 5 | Banks on the upper but resources a drag

Financial stocks led the Australian sharemarket higher on Wednesday while the resources and energy sectors fell after a wave of disappointing company results. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index closed 0.4 per cent, or 21.8 points higher, at 5100 points.

It’s possible the degree of yield implied by Bell Potter’s forecasts for port and rail operator Asciano may not be enough to attract value investors who are looking at companies in less capital-intensive industries that provide better near-term returns on investment.